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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/08/kim-kardashian-kind-karl-lagerfeld-reality-star-robbery
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| The tale of Kim Kardashian shows us that you don’t have to be cruel. Be kind The tale of Kim Kardashian shows us that you don’t have to be cruel. Be kind | |
| (2 months later) | |
| Karl Lagerfeld is a man who has found fame and fortune because he is very good at providing wealthy women with clothing and accessories that proclaim their wealth. So why on earth does he feel he can tell a wealthy woman with clothing and accessories that proclaim her wealth that it was her own silly fault she found herself tied up and dumped in a bath while armed robbers divested her of her jewellery? | Karl Lagerfeld is a man who has found fame and fortune because he is very good at providing wealthy women with clothing and accessories that proclaim their wealth. So why on earth does he feel he can tell a wealthy woman with clothing and accessories that proclaim her wealth that it was her own silly fault she found herself tied up and dumped in a bath while armed robbers divested her of her jewellery? |
| Lagerfeld, the chief designer at Chanel, Fendi and his own label, declares that “you cannot display your wealth then be surprised” when you are robbed. So that’s him out of three jobs. Perhaps he can become an armed robber himself. I’ve always felt that you can’t be an armed robber then be surprised when everyone thinks you’re the scum of the earth. I’m clearly out of kilter with the spirit of the times, which seems united in its belief that it’s OK for five armed robbers to like diamonds, but not for Kim Kardashian to. What next? Will people start believing that a woman in a short skirt is asking to be raped? | Lagerfeld, the chief designer at Chanel, Fendi and his own label, declares that “you cannot display your wealth then be surprised” when you are robbed. So that’s him out of three jobs. Perhaps he can become an armed robber himself. I’ve always felt that you can’t be an armed robber then be surprised when everyone thinks you’re the scum of the earth. I’m clearly out of kilter with the spirit of the times, which seems united in its belief that it’s OK for five armed robbers to like diamonds, but not for Kim Kardashian to. What next? Will people start believing that a woman in a short skirt is asking to be raped? |
| Kardashian, however, appears to agree with her critics. She is said to have accepted that it was foolish to flaunt her lifestyle in the media, especially social media. Except, isn’t a lot of Kardashian’s wealth actually the consequence of her willingness to flaunt it in the media, especially social media? The essential view is that folk such as Kardashian are going to attract psychopathic attention, and she’s an idiot for getting all freaked out because one part of her job turns out to be a bit less pleasant than other parts of her job. Who do we think these guys are? Gentlemen highwaymen? | Kardashian, however, appears to agree with her critics. She is said to have accepted that it was foolish to flaunt her lifestyle in the media, especially social media. Except, isn’t a lot of Kardashian’s wealth actually the consequence of her willingness to flaunt it in the media, especially social media? The essential view is that folk such as Kardashian are going to attract psychopathic attention, and she’s an idiot for getting all freaked out because one part of her job turns out to be a bit less pleasant than other parts of her job. Who do we think these guys are? Gentlemen highwaymen? |
| A political party that insists refugees should be driven out, not helped, has set Britain against its neighbours | A political party that insists refugees should be driven out, not helped, has set Britain against its neighbours |
| I hold no brief for Kim Kardashian, nor for the people who sustain her by consuming the media in which she so lucratively appears. I don’t, however, believe that Lagerfeld’s version of the same deal is so very much more elevated. In his more established iteration of the same formula, the respectful masses admire the Chanel suits in Vogue, and feel they own their own small fragment of the specialness in the form of a Chanel eye pencil. | I hold no brief for Kim Kardashian, nor for the people who sustain her by consuming the media in which she so lucratively appears. I don’t, however, believe that Lagerfeld’s version of the same deal is so very much more elevated. In his more established iteration of the same formula, the respectful masses admire the Chanel suits in Vogue, and feel they own their own small fragment of the specialness in the form of a Chanel eye pencil. |
| The key word here is “respect”. Kardashian has notoriety, rather than fame. She attracts contempt rather than admiration. She is vulnerable because everyone knows who she is, and no one actually respects her. Those who respect her so little that they hold a gun to her head, terrify her, leave her in fear for her life: they have more in common with the Lagerfelds of this world than Kardashian and her fans do. (Those who do respect Kardashian are widely considered to be as ghastly as she is.) | The key word here is “respect”. Kardashian has notoriety, rather than fame. She attracts contempt rather than admiration. She is vulnerable because everyone knows who she is, and no one actually respects her. Those who respect her so little that they hold a gun to her head, terrify her, leave her in fear for her life: they have more in common with the Lagerfelds of this world than Kardashian and her fans do. (Those who do respect Kardashian are widely considered to be as ghastly as she is.) |
| The chilling thing about Kardashian’s violation, and the world’s reaction to it, is that it affords her no respect at all, not even respect for another human being who was subjected to an awful ordeal. Worse, not only is there no respect. There’s not even any kindness. On the contrary, there’s a note of arrogant pride in the gusto with which lack of empathy for Kardashian’s suffering is vocalised. | The chilling thing about Kardashian’s violation, and the world’s reaction to it, is that it affords her no respect at all, not even respect for another human being who was subjected to an awful ordeal. Worse, not only is there no respect. There’s not even any kindness. On the contrary, there’s a note of arrogant pride in the gusto with which lack of empathy for Kardashian’s suffering is vocalised. |
| I guess this wouldn’t be so important if it were confined to wealthy self-advertisers living their weird and ill-advised dream and getting robbed for their pains. But it’s not. A narcissistic bully is admired so much that he’s within spitting distance of being president of the US. A political party that insists refugees should be driven out, not helped, has achieved its fantasy of setting Britain against its neighbours. The bullies who blame and denigrate are in the ascendancy, and people seem to like it. I don’t think any of this bodes well for the political and social future of humanity. | I guess this wouldn’t be so important if it were confined to wealthy self-advertisers living their weird and ill-advised dream and getting robbed for their pains. But it’s not. A narcissistic bully is admired so much that he’s within spitting distance of being president of the US. A political party that insists refugees should be driven out, not helped, has achieved its fantasy of setting Britain against its neighbours. The bullies who blame and denigrate are in the ascendancy, and people seem to like it. I don’t think any of this bodes well for the political and social future of humanity. |
| But the most distressing thing is to consider how this adult revelling in lack of empathy might be affecting our children. There are a whole bunch of reasons why suicides among children have now reached a 17-year high, not least the political and institutional lack of kindness that starves children’s mental health services of resources. | But the most distressing thing is to consider how this adult revelling in lack of empathy might be affecting our children. There are a whole bunch of reasons why suicides among children have now reached a 17-year high, not least the political and institutional lack of kindness that starves children’s mental health services of resources. |
| It’s easy to blame social media, but it’s easy to make a connection too. Is it really OK to let our children think that it’s fine to terrorise another human being, if you decide that somehow she had it coming, because of the things social media say about her? | It’s easy to blame social media, but it’s easy to make a connection too. Is it really OK to let our children think that it’s fine to terrorise another human being, if you decide that somehow she had it coming, because of the things social media say about her? |
| Maybe a lot of people need to listen to Lucy Alexander, whose 17-year-old son, Felix, killed himself in April. He’d endured seven years of bullying, often from people who’d never met him. They had just jumped on a vile social media bandwagon, in which people were cruel because they had the chance to be, that rolled on and on and on. She wrote an open letter, in the hope of saving others from what her son had been subjected to. This is how she concludes it. | Maybe a lot of people need to listen to Lucy Alexander, whose 17-year-old son, Felix, killed himself in April. He’d endured seven years of bullying, often from people who’d never met him. They had just jumped on a vile social media bandwagon, in which people were cruel because they had the chance to be, that rolled on and on and on. She wrote an open letter, in the hope of saving others from what her son had been subjected to. This is how she concludes it. |
| “You may see that I have repeatedly used one word in this letter and I make no apology for this. | “You may see that I have repeatedly used one word in this letter and I make no apology for this. |
| “The word is kindness. I said this at our son’s funeral. Please be kind always, for you never know what is in someone’s heart or mind. | “The word is kindness. I said this at our son’s funeral. Please be kind always, for you never know what is in someone’s heart or mind. |
| “Our lives have been irrevocably damaged by the loss of our wonderful son; please don’t let it happen to any other family.” | “Our lives have been irrevocably damaged by the loss of our wonderful son; please don’t let it happen to any other family.” |
| I stand with Lucy Alexander. | I stand with Lucy Alexander. |